Who Makes Advanta Tires And Where Are They Manufactured?

• Cars

Advanta Tires is a private-label tire brand that is distributed in the U.S. on an exclusive basis by U.S. AutoForce. Advanta was founded as a brand in 1982. It is currently a full-line tire producer that offers the Advanta ER-800 tire for general passenger vehicle use, the Advanta HPZ-02 high-performance tire, plus a complete line of light truck and SUV tires that includes the RTX-850, ATX-850, HTR-800, SVT-01, SVT-02, and AW-03 all-weather tires, as well as tires for boats or other trailers towed by trucks and SUVs. Advanta also sells commercial truck tires for use on steering axles, driving axles, or trailers. Even though Advanta tires are not a generally well-known name brand, they are definitely not a cheap tire to avoid.

According to its LinkedIn profile, U.S. AutoForce is based in Appleton, Wisconsin, is privately held and has between 1,001 and 5,000 employees. It boasts "70+ years as a leader in tire, parts, and lubricant distribution." As the exclusive distributor of Advanta tires, U.S. AutoForce enforces its standard policy of selling only through dealers and never direct-to-consumer. 

Most of Advanta's tires for passenger cars, performance vehicles, light trucks, and SUVs come with limited mileage treadwear warranties. The Advanta ER-800 and the Advanta HPZ-02, the Advanta ATX-850, and the Advanta HTR-800 all have a 50,000-mile limited warranty. The all-weather Advanta AW-03 has a 50,000-mile limited warranty and is three-peak mountain snowflake certified for winter driving conditions. The Advanta SVT-01 has an even better 60,000-mile limited warranty, while the Advanta SVT-02 and the Advanta RTX-850 have no treadwear warranty.

Where are Advanta tires manufactured?

The Advanta tires that you buy from a tire dealer have been produced in one of numerous locations, with American Pacific Industries being the entity that is responsible for manufacturing them. American Pacific Industries operates its own tire production facilities in locations including China, India, and the U.S. American Pacific Industries also utilizes the services of some production partners located in various places like China, Thailand, and Taiwan. 

So between the tires produced in American Pacific Industries' own plants and those of its partners or subcontractors, your Advanta tires could be produced in one of a wide variety of locations across Asia or even possibly in the U.S. You can always check the tire sidewalls of the tires you are purchasing for the DOT code — this number tells you where your tires have been manufactured and exactly how old they are. 

What else should you know about Advanta tires?

While it is highly unlikely that you'll end up driving on counterfeit tires, it has happened before, with Advanta tires that were purchased by none other than Consumer Reports for a tire test that the publication performed back in 2014. CR purchased Pegasus Advanta SUV tires and discovered that their performance in snowy conditions was below par. American Pacific Industries, responsible for producing these tires, then got in touch with CR, stating that the performance of the Advanta tires was far less than what their internal testing had shown. 

It turned out that these tires had been produced after American Pacific Industries had stopped using a particular Chinese factory for their tire production. Even though American Pacific Industries stated that the tire plant was destroyed, they also admitted that "Many of our molds went missing at that time." So this could be a case of some unscrupulous operator using the cheapest possible rubber to make a batch of legit-looking tires, which slipped into normal tire-selling channels and were sold to Consumer Reports (CR), along with who knows how many other unsuspecting consumers. If CR could get swindled, what chance do the rest of us have? 

Aside from this isolated situation, you can usually protect yourself by buying tires from a reputable dealer that will stand behind what it sells. That way, in the event you believe that you have not gotten fair value, the dealer will go to bat for you with the manufacturer and hopefully make things right.